FEARFUL FAMINES OF THE PAST
The four years between 1333 and 1337
constituted a period of unimagined suf
fering throughout China, and it is highly
probable that it was in this era that the
seeds of disaster were sown for Europe's
Black Death, which appeared in the fol
lowing decade. Famine and pestilence
laid the whole country waste. Excessive
rains caused destructive inundations, and
according to Chinese records 4,000,000
people perished from starvation in the
neighborhood of Kiang alone. Violent
earthquakes occurred in many parts of
the kingdom; whole mountains were
thrown up and vast lakes formed. The
fury of the elements subsided and the rav
ages of famine ceased in the very year
that the Black Death reached England.
The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846,
and 1849 are said to have taken a toll of
not less than 45,000,000 lives. In 1875
1878 four provinces in northern China,
the district known as the "Garden of
China," suffered a failure of crops ow
ing to lack of rain, and in an area about
the size of France nine millions perished.
Two recent periods of dearth in China
which awakened wide interest and elic
ited generous contributions from the
United States for relief work were the
famines of 1906 and 1911, when floods
in the Yangtze River basin affected o1,
000,000 people residing in an area the
size of the State of Kentucky.
During both of these famines parents
found it necessary to sell their daughters,
not only to obtain food for themselves,
but in order that the children might not
starve. They were usually sold to wealthy
families, in which they became slave
girls. Early in the period of distress
girls of. o to 15 years of age brought as
much as $20 each; but when the food
shortage, was most severe the customary
quotation in the slave market was 60
cents each, while in one instance a father
is known to have accepted 14 cents and
two bowls of rice in exchange for his
child.
No other race is as docile as the Chi
nese in times of famine. Their resigna
tion in the- face of calamity is amazing.
For instance, in the food shortage of
1906-1907 a starving army of 300,000
peasants camped beneath the walls of the
city of Tsinkiangpu. The grain ware
houses of the town, a place of 200,000
inhabitants, were overflowing with wheat,
maize, and rice, and these supplies were
constantly on display; yet there were no
riots. The thousands outside the walls
sat themselves down to die, while those
within continued to transact the ordinary
affairs of every-day life.
HUNGER AND THE RUSSIAN PEASANT
Next to the proletariat of India and
China, the Russian peasant feels the pinch
of poverty and hunger more keenly and
more frequently than any other citizen'
on earth.
One of the earliest famines in Russia
of which there is any definite record was
that of 1600, which continued for three
years, with a death toll of 500,ooo peas
ants. .Cats, dogs, and rats were eaten;
the strong overcame the weak, and in the
shambles of the public markets human
flesh was sold. Multitudes of the dead
were found with their mouths stuffed
with straw.
Three Russian famines of compara
tively recent date were among the most
severe in the history of the country. They
occurred in 1891, 1906, and 1911. Dur
ing the ten years following the first of
these periods of dearth the government
allotted nearly $125,000,000 for relief
work, but the sums were not always ju
diciously expended.
In 1906 the government gave 4o pounds
of flour a month to all persons under 18
and over 59 years of age. All peasants
between those ages and infants under one
year of age received no allowance, and it
became necessary for the younger and
older members of the family to share
their bare pittance with those for whom,
no provision was made. The suffering
was intense and the mortality exceedingly
heavy, but the available statistics are not
wholly reliable.
The famine of 1911 extended over one
third of the area of the empire in Europe'
and affected more or less directly 30,000,
ooo people, while 8,ooo,ooo were reduced
to starvation. Weeds, the bark of trees,
and bitter bread made from acorns con
stituted the chief diet for the destitute.
This was unquestionably the most wide-